Xing Shuishui could feel his emotions. They were so sincere.
But now wasn’t the time.
“So, He Liansheng—”
“Did you come here to catch demons?”
Pushing him away gently, Xing Shuishui could finally breathe. He Liansheng stared at her light makeup for a moment before turning away and saying: “Yes, I’m hunting demons, but not you.”
He continued: “During the Mountain Festival, many elders in the Official family were poisoned. Lingshan hasn’t seen such a terrible incident in years. They thought it was you at first, but when they traced the poison in the cups, it led to someone called He Tangzhou. So they sent me.”
He Shusheng. He Tangzhou.
First causing trouble at Lingshan, now coming after her. Quite bold.
Xing Shuishui pondered: “Then we might be looking for the same person.”
Outside, the sedan carriers who had fainted were waking up. Xing Shuishui’s expression changed as she quickly pulled He Liansheng inside. He stared at her delicate white hands but said nothing.
The curtain fell again. The people outside were confused.
“Why did we faint? I thought I saw someone! Was it a hallucination?”
“Yes, yes! I saw something too!”
“Miss! Miss, are you alright?”
Her soft voice came from inside the sedan: “I’m fine, no worries. Let’s continue.”
The wedding procession moved forward.
Xing Shuishui wasn’t really fine. He Liansheng kept twirling her temple hair around his fingers, refusing to let her put the veil back on.
He asked: “Is this why you’re being a substitute bride?”
Xing Shuishui answered: “It’s because of my sister.”
He Liansheng said: “The Xue family’s eldest daughter shares your sister’s name. I figured it out.”
Xing Shuishui said: “I suspected that Scholar He was after my sister before. Hearing you say this confirms it.”
He Liansheng’s hand paused slightly as he asked: “When you deliberately got close to me before, was that also about your sister?”
Xing Shuishui stiffened, taking a long time before answering: “Yes.”
She lowered her eyes: “He Liansheng, actually that day at the Heaven’s Altar, I wasn’t just hiding. I needed the altar to gather my sister’s soul. I’m sorry, I didn’t expect you to come…”
“I don’t care about that.”
He Liansheng leaned in to look at her, saying softly: “Xing Shuishui, I just want to ask you one thing. Answer me honestly.”
Xing Shuishui wasn’t sure what he wanted to ask and felt nervous.
The young man stared at her clear black and white eyes, unable to hide his killing intent: “Back then at Lingshan, who led you to the Forbidden Mountain?”
Xing Shuishui was silent for a while.
She hadn’t expected He Liansheng to still be hung up on this after so long.
She sighed and decided not to hide anything: “It was Guan Wushan.”
“You might have seen him in Qingzhou. He went by Hua Wushan then and was very good at pretending. He almost fooled everyone. He’s cunning and crafty. He killed my sister and knows mirror arts, puppet techniques, and many other skills I’ve never seen before. Scholar He must be one of his people. The poisoning of the Official family was also his doing. Guan Yinzi is his uncle, and Guan Yousi is his mother. He hates Lingshan, and he hates me.”
He Liansheng let go of her hair and said mockingly: “So this is the one who ruined you like this.”
Xing Shuishui was stunned.
The sedan chair continued up the mountain until they reached an old house. Sensing a faint demonic aura, Xing Shuishui signaled He Liansheng not to move. He coldly watched outside the sedan.
“Please step down, bride!”
“Please step down, bride!”
“Please step down, bride!”
The matchmaker called three times, but the sedan remained silent. Just as the guests were growing impatient—
The bride’s voice came from within: “I want Scholar He to help me down himself.”
The guests were stunned for a moment before breaking into teasing laughter.
He Tangzhou bowed to those around him, smiled helplessly, then walked forward. Just as his hand lifted the curtain—
A silver sword pressed against his throat.
He Tangzhou’s smile froze.
He Liansheng’s mocking voice came at the same time: “Who exactly were you planning to marry, you dead fox spirit?”
He stepped out, immediately seeing through He Tangzhou’s true form, his presence imposing. Even after being exposed, He Tangzhou didn’t get angry. He dispersed some drug-laced sweat to daze the mortals around them and said with a smile: “This humble one just wanted to get married. How have I offended this immortal master?”
Xing Shuishui got down from the sedan, blocking He Tangzhou’s path with her fire.
“Is Guan Wushan still alive?”
Hearing this name, He Tangzhou pretended to think for a moment: “Who is Guan Wushan? And who are you? I vaguely remember I was supposed to marry the Xue family’s eldest daughter. Why did they send a child like you instead?”
Seeing how calm he remained, Xing Shuishui looked around warily. There was a mass grave nearby, and Guan Wushan knew ghost-summoning arts. He must have prepared for this. She tugged at He Liansheng as the mass grave began to shake, fierce ghosts surging forth.
He Liansheng didn’t even look at them, raising his sword to strike at He Tangzhou. His sword moves were quick and fierce, but He Tangzhou transformed into a fox, using the size difference to dodge the blow and lunging at Xing Shuishui with his claws.
Xing Shuishui was focusing on dealing with the fierce ghosts and hadn’t expected the fox scholar to suddenly attack like this. She was knocked to the ground.
He really was too crafty. She raised her spirit eyes to strike.
But one look at the fox’s eyes made her dizzy. Her hand holding the knife went soft, and her forehead began to burn.
“Xing Shuishui! Close your eyes!”
Was that He Liansheng speaking?
Xing Shuishui felt increasingly dizzy and soon passed out.
He Liansheng held her, murderous intent spreading.
The demon-binding rope flew out to tie up He Tangzhou, who fell heavily to the ground. But this captured fox wasn’t afraid. Instead, he said with a grin: “Just focused on catching me, shouldn’t you be more worried about her? Wushan guessed right, you two dogs will get back together even if separated.”
The Peach Spring Sword cut his throat, drawing blood.
He Liansheng coldly asked: “What did you do to her?”
“Hmm…”
He Tangzhou smiled: “It’s a common technique from our Qingqiu called Heart Mirror. If she loves you, a kiss will break it. If she doesn’t love you, only digging out heart blood will break it. Oh, I forgot to mention, you only get one chance to break it.”
He looked at He Liansheng provocatively: “Well? Want to take that bet?”
The young man’s eyes narrowed. Without warning, He Tangzhou was thrown against the surrounding trees. The mountain birds suffered unexpectedly. When he was brought back to the inn, Li Guanxing saw him covered in bruises.
He angrily pointed at He Tangzhou: “So it was you, dead fox, causing trouble! First seducing my sister, now seducing Miss Xue.”
He Tangzhou’s face was expressionless: “Which sister of yours?”
Li Guanxing was furious.
Li Guanyu put down her teacup and said: “Guanxing, don’t argue. We’ll take him back to Lingshan for questioning.”
He Tangzhou looked at her and remembered everything. Back then when he was down and out, trying to absorb human soul essence, he’d stripped down completely, yet she had only worried: “The weather’s cold, you’re dressed so thinly, you might catch a chill?”
“…”
He wasn’t that ugly either…
Li Guanxing snorted and dragged He Tangzhou to one side, far away from Li Guanyu. Then he looked at He Liansheng and finally noticed the young woman in his arms, startled.
The young woman wore a fire-red wedding dress, jewels swaying, apparently unconscious, her hanging arm very pale.
If this wasn’t the long-missing Xing Shuishui, who else could it be!
Li Guanxing instinctively said: “Weren’t you supposed to be catching demons? Did you go bride-snatching too?”
He Tangzhou helpfully added: “He stole mine, see my wedding clothes? They’re a matching set. Who will right this wrong?”
Feeling He Liansheng’s cold gaze, Li Guanxing shuddered and sealed He Tangzhou’s mouth, saying irritably: “Shut up!”
He Liansheng carried Xing Shuishui back to the room. Apart from the spell making her forehead burn, her body was fine. The Heart Mirror technique only had one chance to break it – either a kiss or heart blood. Xing Shuishui was well-behaved while sleeping, her cheeks rosy. The young man lowered his eyes, his fingers brushing past her lips, his movements gentle.
He’d overstepped.
Shadows flickered on the window.
Blood splattered on it. Shocking to see.
This young man who had been exceptional since childhood was confident about many things – swordmanship, cultivation, demon catching. But there was one thing he never dared think too much about.
He didn’t think Xing Shuishui would like him.
—The kind of like that would make her want to marry him.
Xing Shuishui slowly woke up to find herself lying in bed, not her own but a strange one. She immediately sat up, feeling something odd at the corner of her mouth. She raised her hand to wipe it and looked down to see blood.
A strong taste of blood in her throat.
Had He Tangzhou poisoned her, making her cough blood?
She changed clothes and ran out to find the Lingshan people all there. She turned to look at He Liansheng leaning by the window. The young man’s lips were pale, but he looked happy.
She instinctively asked: “Was I unconscious?”
He Liansheng answered: “You were under a spell.”
Then he pointed at He Tangzhou, whose voice had been sealed: “Taking his blood broke it.”
He Tangzhou: “…”
As Wushan had guessed, He Liansheng would choose to take out his own heart blood no matter what. He couldn’t help but smile mockingly – their goal had been achieved, all that effort hadn’t been wasted.
What kind of prodigy takes out his own heart blood for a little demon? What did that make him anymore?
Xing Shuishui walked over to him in a few steps, grabbing his clothes: “Where is Guan Wushan now?”
He Tangzhou smiled and pointed at his throat. Xing Shuishui unsealed his voice.
He Tangzhou sighed and said: “Rather than worry about that, you should be more concerned about your reincarnated sister. We planted a curse in her body long ago. Haven’t you noticed yet?”
Xing Shuishui’s face changed: “You still dare to touch my sister. Do you want to die?”
He Tangzhou smiled: “When I poisoned the Official family, I never expected to live, so I took poison myself too, just one that works more slowly. Now, I’ve done everything I could for Wushan. The rest is up to him. Xue Jiuling, no one can help you this time.”
Xing Shuishui kicked him: “Are you Guan Wushan’s dog?”
He Tangzhou didn’t answer. Black blood seeped from his mouth. Xing Shuishui didn’t understand how, just like Guan Yinzi before, people were willing to die for Guan Wushan when he was so cold-blooded and vicious.
Li Guanxing’s eyes widened: “He just died like that? How do we explain this to the Mountain Master?”
Li Guanyu also frowned.
He Liansheng walked behind Xing Shuishui, his shadow falling over her as he said softly: “Your sister will be fine.”
Xing Shuishui crouched on the ground for a long time without speaking. Li Guanxing looked disgustedly at the black blood on the ground: “Whatever. Dead or alive, we need proof. Let’s take his body back. He Liansheng, when are you returning to Lingshan?”
But He Liansheng said: “You go back. I’m not returning.”
Li Guanxing: “?”
Li Guanyu: “?”
Xing Shuishui looked up at him. He Liansheng met her gaze, put down his Peach Spring Sword, his white clothes spotless, and just like that — casually spoke these shocking words: “If anyone asks, tell them I’ve betrayed the Way.”
So arrogant.
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